Posted: September 5th, 2022

List the main functions of a telescope.

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List the main functions of a telescope.
Telescopes, which are the main instruments for the study of the night sky, are used for looking at things that are too far and examining them. Smaller telescopes are used to look at astronomical events, while large telescopes are used for the study of astronomy. A telescope has three basic functions. Those functions are light gathering, resolving, and magnifying. A telescope makes far-away things look closer, it increases the resolution of things for more detail, and they gather more light than your eye can, making things otherwise invisible visible.
Identify the world’s largest radio telescopes.
Radio telescopes detect and amplify radio waves from space. A radio telescope looks like a large parabolic antenna and is made of metal. It consists of a radio receiver and an antenna system. Up until 2016, the largest radio telescope was the Arecibo Radio Observatory, located in Puerto Rico. The telescope is nearly 1000 feet across and 167 feet deep. It was built into a large limestone sinkhole, which covers an area of approximately twenty acres. In 2016, the construction of the gigantic Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) was completed in China. As the name suggests, its diameter is 500 meters or 1640 feet. Today, it is the world’s largest radio telescope.
Other honorable mentions are the Very Large Array (VLA), Green Bank Telescope (GBT), Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Effelsberg, Medicina, Sardinia Radio Telescope, Lovell Radio telescope, Parkes, and Square Kilometer Array (SKA).
List the advantages of making astronomical observations from space.
Since the 1960s, space-based observations allow the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study the universe, like the solar system and the Milky Way galaxy, in ways not possible from Earth due to the interference from the planet’s atmosphere. Telescopes in space, such as the most famous Hubble Space Telescope, can operate around the clock, uninterrupted by the Earth’s day-night cycle or its weather conditions. Additionally, space telescopes can get clearer shots of everything and especially the electromagnet spectrum of light, such as ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays, impossible to view by ground-based telescopes since the atmosphere absorbs most of the light.
Works Cited
“2. Telescope Functions.” Main Functions of a Telescope, https://www.telescope-optics.net/functions.htm.
Bradaschia, Filippo. “Largest Radio Telescopes in the World.” Radio2Space, 9 Dec. 2019, https://www.radio2space.com/largest-radio-telescopes-in-the-world/.
Foust, Jeff. “.” Space Sciences. . Encyclopedia.com. 19 Aug. 2022 .” Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia.com, 24 Aug. 2022, https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/observatories-space-based.

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